What's on my Bench Today?

Final touches going on these two today, then I'll pull them apart, reseal and buff the handles, final fit them...and in the mail they'll go Monday/Tuesday .



@marc4pt0 by the way...I'm thinking that might be your handle wood up there above Ferry's gyuto . I'll get with you about it later. Thanks for the gorgeous piece of rosewood @Dream Burls!

 

Somebody ring?
Let's most definitely talk wood, I'm all ears!

 

Whatcha think brother? It's actually Kingwood, which I'd never heard of...and is some of the most beautiful 'understated' woods I've ever seen.



I had to put flash on it to get the figure...but the actual color in hand varies from black to purple to that deep cherry/mohogany. Pretty freaking gorgeous. I'd look phenomenal with a simple blackwood or bog oak spacer arrangement, with very thin nickel silver or copper.

 

I promise, I haven't been MIA!! I'm on every day...just had a ton of stuff keeping me occupied. So here's a quick recap of most of what I've been doing this week. Be sure to switch them to 1080p!


Ferry's knife in the works!


What's this? Razors?!...and some more on Ferry's finished knife.


Before...


After!


Sharp!!


And the stones I sharpened it on. These things are...different. They might not be anything special, but they've taken my sharpening to an entirely new level...and will work as excellent finishing stones for customers to keep the edges of my knives fresh for a good, long while.

 

Hey Cris, how's that old Blade Master bandsaw working out for you?

 

Gee, I wonder where you got that?

 

Heya Myron!

Bandsaw's working great! And yeah...that gorgeous Kingwood! One of those crazy wood vendors I think. Burl Dreams? Dream Wood? Oh yeah...it was Dream Burls!

 

Beautiful work as always Cris. You will like Kingwood. It is in the rosewood family so it does not need stabilization.

 

I'm in an area with bad Internet access, so I can't watch the vids. But man, Ferry's knife looks wicked. It's impossible to grasp from the photographs, but somehow this knife embodies sharpness.

 

Thank's guys! I agree...the Kingwood is gorgeous, and Mark...hopefully Ferry's knife will get out of customs soon so he can tell you himself !!

For tonight's installment...





I decided to go ahead and slip Matt's handle on the Watermelon Killer (long story...but that's why he bought the knife lol). The koa is grungy in these pictures, and the knife is only at 800 grit, with my fingerprints all over it (you can almost see the mirror polish it has though)...but I think it's going to turn out rather nice myself .

 

Tonight! Tool arm construction, suji rehandle (glue up anyway), and the glue up for the paring knife handle above. The paring knife handle is either going to be a complete failure, or seriously wicked. Guess we'll find out which tomorrow, lol.


First, the materials. That's .120" wall, 18" long 1.5" square tubing, 2" and 4" contact wheel, some locking collars, a handful of 1/2" flat washer, some grade 8 1/2" x 6" bolts, and the requisite 1/2" nuts to cinch everything down.


First, I needed to mark the ends of the tubing for the holes the axles (1/2" grade 8 bolts) will pass through.



All drilled out.


I used a shorter 1/2" bolt to lock down the guide nut before welding it to the tool arm. By tightening it down, I guaranteed that the bolt that will be put in there is exactly 90° to the faces of the tubing.


Ignore the nasty tack welds, thank you very much. I think my ground cable has a short in it...it's been acting up for a while now.



All assembled with the 2" wheel. The locking collar holds the wheel against the head of the bolt (with a flat washer under of course), and with the jamb nut loosened, the position of the wheel in relation the the tool arm (and thus the centerline of the contact wheel wheel in comparison to the drive wheel) can be adjusted in or out, as I show in the video below. The point of all of this extra effort is to be able to adjust the tracking of my grinder without the use of a tracking wheel. This allows me the use of 2x42 belts for certain tasks...which are MUCH cheaper. It also allows me to use 1" wheels and 1x42 belts for grinding razors with smiles. Something that's difficult...if not impossible...to do with a 2" belt.






I promise, the wood won't look like I smeared it with mud when I'm done, lol! Materials are stabilized redwood and African Blackwood from Myron at Dream Burls .


Now...onto the paring knife handle. This piece of wood...is really, really something interesting. The material is Norfolk pine, and it has a huge orange eye that runs diagonally through the entire piece. These eyes, apparently...are what the wood is known for...and let me tell you, they're definitely dramatic.


All cut up with spacers. You can't see the other side here (you can in the picture immediately below this one however), but the spacer placement was very, very difficult to figure, as the other side of the eye was very near what is going to be the front of the handle. I think putting the spacers through the orange would have taken away from the overall look of the handle.


This would be the left side of the handle. You can see what I meant about the eye being diagonal. I think once this handle is ground (it's a dual taper), the majority of the handle is going to be a mottled orange and yellow/brown. VERY cool if it comes out like I'm envisioning.


And the right side of the handle. The actual butt will be approximately 3/16" (about 5mm maybe?) from the end of the blank there on the left side. I want the knot to fill the entire area of the flare in the back of the handle. In case you guys don't remember, this is the basic design this paring knife will have:


The handle will be a little shorter overall, and I'll be moving the center flare more towards the middle of the handle for an improved paring grip.

Overall, I think this is going to be a cool little knife!

 

Another quick update on these two knives...


First the suji! Thinned, rehandled, spine and choil full rounded and polished, and a nice new brushed finish! All she needs is an edge and down the road she goes!

I don't have any pictures of the other handle...but I have a video link for you guys if you want to take a look:

https://instagram.com/p/69sg3ImOoy/

That Norfolk pine turned out pretty nicely I think!

 

Lots of little updates today! I haven't made a post in here for almost a month...lol, but that doesn't mean things aren't getting done! I'll probably post these in a few separate posts for coherency lol.

First up, a customer contacted me quite awhile back about making a new sheath (and possibly a handle wrap) for his damascus san mai outdoor/utility knife. I had initially planned to get it done within a very short time period, but through one thing and another it kept getting pushed back. I finally managed to get it 90% finished this weekend. The sheath is 100%, and the handle wrap is mocked up for me to be able to get some measurements to begin cutting the tang for it to fit. When it's done I think this is going to be a really cool little knife .


I designed this sheath style for my own EDC knives. It's made to go INSIDE of a person's right front pocket. The clip and the tang are the only parts visible once the sheath is in place. It could also be carried on a belt or waistband. At the end of the post I'll attach an image to show how I carry them.


Honestly it's a pretty cool little knife! I'll be putting an edge on it as well. Should be a really unique piece of work when it's done.


Here you can see the mocked up wrap. The final version will be tied over black samegawa (stingray skin), with a tsuka maki end knot similar to what you'd see on a katana. I'd originally done a knife in this manner years ago, but it fits the Japanese personalty that this blade emanates perfectly!

Here's the knife I made that shows what the handle will look like:




And this is how it carries.

 

In other news lol...I also received a new shipment of stones from Terry at www.naturalhones.com. We had originally worked out a deal in trade for one of my EDC knives. In return, he gave me three of his stones, two Apache Strata, and one smaller Apache Red. I recently shared a video with him of the knife almost completed, and he loved it so much he sent me an Apache Gila, and two different versions of the Apache Red to play with . Needless to say, I think Terry is a great guy lol. Honestly though, I've found the stones to be pretty amazing for virtual unknowns. They're mostly geared towards razors, being ultra high grit (8k-20k plus?), but I've found one of the Reds to be great for knives in general, including kitchen knives. I absolutely love that these stones are made just 90 miles from my front door, and even more that they work so very well to boot. The Apache Black Gila is the real star of the show however. More on that though in a separate post.

Anyhow lol, here's the knife I made for Terry:



And here's the selection of stones from his shop.


All of my natural stones wet, and dry right off of 220 grit SiC and a glass plate...from left to right in order of grit...including two that didn't come from Terry. First we have the '2k' that I'm selling to my customers (not a stone from Terry), then the initial Apache Red that I got, a second Apache Red that Terry thought I might like, then the 'experimental' Apache Purple (this one is the one that's a BEAUTY for knives and kitchen knives...and also works as a solid mid range stone for razors. It's softer than all of the other Apache stones, which makes the 'feel' much different), then a Guangxi 12k (C12k, Phig, Phug, People's Hone of Unknown Grit...it goes by many names lol), Apache Strata, and Apache Black Gila.


Here we have pure razor finishing stones. The left stone is the C12k from the Guangxi province in China. This stone is very smooth, and leaves a nice finish on a razor, but is really, really slow. I actually just received another one in the mail today that I didn't order...and I'm not sure why lol. It looks a lot different than this one though (solid grey, no green or streaks at all), so it'll be interesting to try. It looks and feels like it'll be faster, though I doubt I'll use it even if it is. The Guangxi stones don't hold a candle to the two stones next to it. Pictured in the middle, is the Apache Strata. This was the first solid razor finisher I received, and it seems the higher the level of polish it takes, the better the edge it leaves. It's currently at a mirror level from about 20° from vertical. It still shows swarf from a 63HRC razor after about 20 or so passes. To the right of that...is something special. That stone is an Apache Black Gila, and it makes the Strata look like any other rock in my short time working with it. It cuts faster tan the Strata, and leaves a sharper, AND smoother edge. Kinda crazy to be honest...but it does it.



These are the three Apache 'Red' stones Terry sent me. The two on the left are very similar in feel and function, but the one on the right (called the Apache 'Purple' by Terry) is much, much different. The two Reds are quite hard...and don't get me wrong, the Purple is as well...but it 'feels' softer in use. All of the Apache stones...like most ultra hard high grit stones...have a limited sense of feel in regards to the amount of effort required in drawing a blade across. This can transmit to having a tough time 'feeling the edge' when sharpening knives freehand. They DO have draw, it's just something you have to attune yourself to pick up. The Purple on the other hand, feels more like a King 6k in how the draw transmits to your hands. In cutting, with pressure it seems to be around 4k, and with just the weight of a blade, closer to 10k. This is based on the scratch pattern at 500x. The feel is really, really nice though. Feeling the apex of the edge is 100% intuitive on this stone.




Here's the four razor finishers. I left the other stones at the surface finish supplied by the 220 grit silicon carbide powder, but the finishers needed further refinement. To do this, I first generated a slurry with a DMT on the back side of one of the other Apache Red's, and applied it to each of these stones. I then used them each to lap each the others. When the lapping process became effortless (when the stones are 'working' you can feel drag when rubbing them together. When they're done, they just slide effortlessly), I cleaned them up and applied the next step in my finisher refinement process.



Which involved .5 micron diamond slurry. I spritz it on a stone, then use another stone to lap it in. The diamond cuts very aggressively, but it's such a fine grit that the level of polish it leaves is profound. You can't tell from this picture, but these stones are virtually mirror polished from end to end.



Here you can see the Black Gila doing what it does best...finishing a razor. If you look to the right and left, you can see the line of swarf built up from the razor being cut. It took only 10-15 laps per side to generate this amount of swarf. Also, keep in mind that this stone was polished to a .5 micron level. It's a very, very interesting piece of rock!!

 

Soooooo...it's been a bit since I've posted any of what's been on my bench! Mostly because it's been razor stuff for the Sue Moore auction, but also due to having surgery on my right ankle, along with the custody court mess. It seems I spend more time dealing with my lawyer than my kids some days . Still...things are settling into a routine again...if not as productive one as I would wish.

That said (and I don't know if I'd mentioned it here or not), awhile back I'd traded one of my 270 gyuto-hiki (the third of the trio I did awhile back...one of which went to James and the other to kill watermelons in California lol) for a new Evenheat 22.5" heat treat oven. My old oven was the source of my heat treating issues I had going, so the new oven was pretty much mandatory. They run around $1100 or so, so the trade was very fair. The knife was going to a local chef at a small boutique restaurant called 32 Shea (literally, like 25 seats in the house including the bar...but a huge outdoor shaded patio area), and would be getting a lot of local exposure on News Channel 3...which was another bonus. I had completely forgotten the deadline for the knife, which turned out to be this week lol...so it ended up jumping my priority list. The knife was already ground...so it just needed a handle and polishing.

We can now check the handle off the list for completion.





Turns out, Chef Theresa's favorite color is purple, and I had a stunning piece up in my stash. The violet spacer was a shoe in, along with the clean nickel silver to break it up. I figured the flared handle would complement the lines well, while keeping the balance a bit more neutral for such a long knife (in comparison to the dual taper). Chef is a pretty tiny girl though, so I shrunk it in both length and thickness to compensate.

I think this one's going to be pretty .

 

Damm! That is a looker. I'm sure she will be stoked.

 

Good to see fresh work from you besides razors.

 

Fresh work and still stunning as always!